The Gun Culture                          #224

By Hank Silverberg 

Whatever I write on this subject there is going to be someone who will yell at me. 

America's gun culture is out of control. 

First, let me say I don't own a gun. I never thought of getting one because frankly, I don't need one. I have no use for it. 

There are 393.3 million firearms in CIVILIAN hands in the United States. That's about 120 guns for every one hundred residents.  We are the only country in the world that has more guns than people. Again, that's civilian owned guns. That does not count the military or law enforcement. No one else comes close. Yemen, in the midst of a nasty civil war, has 52.8 guns per 100 residents. Canada, 34.7.

These figures come from a pre-pandemic 2018 survey. The numbers are likely higher now.  

If you want the startling numbers on gun violence in the United States, read The Washington Post article at the link below. The mass murder is hard to fathom, even for someone like me who spent years reporting on crime and mass shootings. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/25/american-gun-exceptionalism/

So, the big questions is, why do so many people want to carry a gun? Yes, I know the U.S. Constitution says you are allowed to, a right that is nonexistent in many countries around the world. But that doesn't explain why people want them. Crime in this country is NOT out of control. All that talk about defunding the police never happened and is not likely to. The cops in most communities are out there, ready to "serve and protect." (They may have failed to do that in Uvalde, Texas last week, but that story is still unfolding.)   

Why? Because people perceive a gun as power. For some it makes them feel safe, even when they are not in danger. For others it makes them feel like they are in control. For some, it's protection against "them," whoever they are. But it doesn't explain the need to own a weapon that fires 45 rounds per minute like an A-R 15.  A psychologist could explain it better. 

 Yes, I know there have been some instances where a civilian armed with a gun has saved innocent lives. But as we found out in the Buffalo supermarket shooting, even an armed guard with experience and bravery, can't stop a killer with an A-R 15 and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. It cost the guard his life.   

Frankly, there is no need for ANY civilian to own an automatic weapon or a semi-automatic weapon that can be easily converted to an automatic one.  

It's not needed to shoot a home intruder. A small handgun will do that just as well, even though statistics indicate most burglars are not armed. 

You don't need such a weapon to shoot a deer in the forest. There are some good sporting rifles if you like to eat venison, rabbit or duck. But you had better intend to eat what you kill. Just killing for sport is barbaric.  

Some ranchers out west say they need guns to protect their livestock from predators. Yes, they do.  But a 308 Winchester or Remington Varmint rifle can handle that. You don't need an A-R 15.  

We need to do something. I agree with many people. We can't simply ban all guns. That's impossible, even if we wanted to. 

But some reasonable measures have worked in the past, and we need to fix what was wrong with them and bring them back. 

In a rare show of bipartisan effort, the Congress passed a ban on assault weapons in 1994. But they made one mistake. They put a ten-year limit on the law, and when it expired in 2004, after heavy pressure from the gun lobby, efforts to revive it failed.  Critics still say it was not effective in stopping gun violence. Those who approved of the ban say that was because there were too many loopholes. For example, there was nothing to prevent people who already owned such weapons from re-selling them without doing any kind of background check, which gun shop owners had to do. You have probably heard about the so-called "gun show" loophole. 

A researcher at Columbia University named Louis Klarevas, took a close look at high fatality mass shootings in a book published in 2016 called "Rampage Nation." He concluded that in a ten-year period while the assault weapons ban was in effect, mass shootings fell by 37%. But after the law lapsed in 2004, the number of shootings rose by 183%.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/27/what-research-shows-effectiveness-gun-control-laws/

https://www.ojp.gov › pdffiles1

It is a rational conclusion that background checks, and an assault weapons ban do indeed reduce the mass killings like Buffalo and Uvalde. We can also add a limit on high volume ammunition magazines, for which a civilian has absolutely no need.   

I am currently searching for details on which members of Congress have taken large campaign contributions from gun lobbyists like the NRA. 

I am not a Constitutional lawyer, but who really thinks the fallible Founding Fathers that the right-wing is always quoting, really wanted mass murder among their citizens when they approved the 2nd Amendment?

Is The Media To Blame?

Finally, there has been some criticism on how the media has handled all these mass shootings. Most of the time the mainstream media is just a messenger. The news is often bad, so some people will always blame the media for what they hear and see. That's unfair. 

But sometimes the media does makes things worse or does something stupid. Here is just one example. 

Take a close look at this article which appeared in The San Antonio Express three days after the shooting in Uvalde. The paper did a very extensive page-one story on the shooting, as you would expect a Texas paper to do. But on the continuation page where the crime-specific details, including a timeline, there was an ad printed at the bottom. It is an advertisement for an event at a local gun range  that took place the same week and into Memorial day. Just read it. 

What stupidity. The ad should have been removed by the newspaper. Or at the very least, placed somewhere else in the paper far away from the story on the Uvalde shooting. This kind of decision is what gives the media a bad name. But then again, it was printed in gun-toting Texas. 

Save On Gas!

 The price of gas is really starting to hurt. The national average price is $4.59 a gallon as the summer driving season officially begins. That's up 52% from a year ago. Granted, the pandemic sent gas prices tumbling down last summer because there was less demand. The huge spike this summer has a lot of people talking more about staycations. 

But there are some things you can do to ease the pain. The Consumer Federation of America says you can save as much as 13% on your gas expense if you follow a few tips. 

1) Do a quick online search. Websites like GasBuddy, Upside or Fuelio can show local prices and let you know where the cheapest gas is. Prices usually go down the farther away you get from major highways. https://www.gasbuddy.com/ 

2) Stop the lead foot. The smoother you accelerate and decelerate the better mileage you will get. Anticipating the movement of traffic and accelerating and braking the right way can give you two to three more miles per gallon. That will also extends the life of your engine, transmission, brakes and tires. 

3) Slow down. For every 5mph of highway speed, you can reduce fuel consumption by 7%. The difference between 65mph and 70mph can save you 6-7mpg.     

4) Travel lean. Remove any unused roof rack or box. The drag can cost you 6-10 mpg on a long trip.  

5) Don't carry any more inside the car than you really need. Extra weight uses up gas. Every extra 100 pounds cuts fuel efficacy by 1-2%. 

6) Make sure your tires are inflated properly.  You can lose 2.8% in fuel efficiency if the tires are underinflated. And check them often if the temperature changes rapidly over a few days. 

7) Don't warm up or cool down your car before you get in it, and if you are stopped for more than a minute or two, turn off the engine and save about 4 cents a gallon. 

8) Finally, check the gas cap. About 17% of the cars on the road have a broken or missing cap, allowing gas to evaporate and wasting about 4 cents per gallon.  

Note: these savings are based on the national average. If gas in your area is higher, you could be losing even more money by poor driving habits. 

SuperEarth!

Scientists have discovered a planet they say could be another super Earth. That means it's within what's known as the habitable zone of a star for life as we know it to possibly exist. It's only 36 and half light years away, and it's about four times the size of our Earth. It may not be habitable to humans because they don't know for sure if there is water, or a magnetosphere to repel dangerous radiation from its sun. The planet, now known as Ross 508, orbits that sun every 10.75 days, and a child born today would be dead before a spacecraft could reach the planet. 

                     

   (Video courtesy Amaze Lab)

More than 5,000 such exoplanets have been discovered in our galaxy. The new James Webb Space Telescope will examine two hot, super Earth planets, including at least one that has oceans.   

 

Dumbest Quote of The Week

 

Rather than using the dumbest quote this week, I thought I would post one that would make most people think, Duh! 

It comes from former Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who you may remember ran for Vice President back in 2012. That was when Republicans were still rational, if not cooperative, with anything that moved us forward. 

  

He was talking on CNBC's   "Squawk Box" program.

"In the old days, like 10 years ago, if you wanted to do really well in Congress, if you wanted to succeed, you climbed a meritocracy. The measurement of success was policy and persuasion."

And he goes on:

 

"That's not necessarily what motivates people anymore. There's a lot of entertainers in Congress from both parties. We have an entertainment wing of the Republican and Democratic parties."

No Kidding. Most members of the GOP have a standing invitation to go on Fox News and entertain us with ridiculous stuff. The only time most Congress members run away from a T-V camera is when a reporter asks a substantive question about an important issue. C-SPAN should be getting higher ratings.  

(My book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:

HankSilverberg@gmail.com for instructions on how to get a copy at a reduced price and with my signature.)                       

 

https://www.amazon.com/Campaign-Hank-Silverberg/dp/1543422608

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796